Listening. Creating. Managing. Measuring.

Help us understand this:

+Commentary:How is this helpful to their brand? Why the watermark and seemingly simple humor? This confounds us from a “brand” that is simply an SaaS [Software as a Service] entity. This isn’t to say it is bad, but when brands act like people on Twitter, while people are acting like brands then we fall down into a rabbit hole like inception.

As you see they want you to like it. Why? What does this have in a way of connecting with me the person, who would use your service, or has read your blog posts which are alright, and doesn’t recommend your service but may in the future?

Implying that you have uncontrollable violence in a grocery store, when road rage accounts for deaths, and there are people who are the victim of it daily, seems rather a weird source of humor.

This works, if say you are trying to get millennials with their ever so wry, or constantly ironic stream of non-sequiturs. It makes no sense either on Twitter or anywhere really. This is sharing on the level of a joke Facebook page administrated by a 16-22 year old who does it for the likes.

It will work, but for whom and what message do you send in the meantime? This trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator or such bad branding. They have 36k followers and only two liked it. Now if they look & see how many “Impressions” it had and imagine some percentage of them made a value call they might see the damage.

Yet we didn’t unfollow them, we made a value call, a decision the minute we saw this. We can mute them, never seeing their work again, or just never recommend their service. The latter will happen, all with us not having touched a button. [Technically nothing will show up in their analytics, even though we were able to cop the picture, and copy & paste the link to share, not magic just careful engagement by a pro]

So since you have a small brand, that is a microbrand without 36,000 followers, and even if you did have that many followers, that you would get more than two likes for a poor joke, using this moment for more than just a vanity metric.

Respect your followers, and know that as big brands, or upstarts like this one are trying to be like you to get & convert followers and that it is easier for you than it will ever be for them to be natural. Whether that be funny or informative.

Before I type my response to your comment, let me tell you a little about myself to give you some context.

— I’ve been on Twitter almost every day since 2009, which has culminated in 161,000 tweets on my @adamsconsulting Twitter account. (not to mention more tweets sent on other accounts)

— I have 134,000 followers on @adamsconsulting, and a quick check at twitteraudit.com will show you that those followers are real people (not purchased, not bullshit).

So when you talk about Twitter… you’re playing in my sandbox.

You asked for someone to “help you understand this” – and I will.

I created that graphic on my phone and put it on social media for fun. I thought it would make followers smile and giggle.

I put it on @adamsconsulting and it did well. I put it on Post Planner’s Instagram, and it did well and is still doing well. I put it on Google Plus and it didn’t do well. I put it on Post Planner’s Twitter and it didn’t do well. So there was a mix of responses.

Never before this tweet have I ever typed “Like this tweet if you know it’s true.” – it was an experiment, a test to see what works and what doesn’t.

I didn’t type that to “get conversions” or rack up “vanity metrics.” I only did that in an effort to see if I could entice people to engage with our content. Again, it was in good fun.

For me, Twitter is all about the relationships and the engagement. I’ll never stop learning and never stop testing and experimenting with new things.

But there is a much bigger picture here.

You typed, “when brands act like people on Twitter, while people are acting like brands then we fall down into a rabbit hole like inception.”

Although I respect your opinion, I disagree with it.

The moment brands stop showing humanity and personality on social media is the moment they stop connecting with their audiences.

In my humble opinion, to say that brands shouldn’t “act like people” is the exact wrong advice you should be giving brands.

If that were good advice, then we should all just schedule all our tweets and not even bother showing up on Twitter at all.

It’s called SOCIAL media for a reason.

For example, on my Twitter account (@adamsconsulting) – I am a brand, but I tweet with a lot of personality.

Does that mean I’m causing people to “fall down into a rabbit hole like inception?” I doubt it. Instead, I’m showing people that I’m human.

When @jack (Twitter founder) retweeted my Star Wars tweet a few months ago – I knew I was doing something right, not wrong.

Another example is the Post Planner Facebook page which has 364,000 likes and is growing FAST. The reason why that page is so successful is because the content there connects with people. It makes them feel something inside. It elicits an emotion.

Your comment about “it is easier for you than it will ever be for them to be natural” is strange to me. It’s strange because it comes across like you don’t have very much experience on social media, and please know I don’t mean any disrespect by saying that.

Let me put it this way — is there anything more natural than being curious and trying new things? Is there anything more natural than making mistakes, falling down, and then getting right back up? Or the opposite… finding success and feeling the joy? Are you implying that it’s more natural to be stiff and boring all the time because you’ve heard “it’s the right thing to do?” Pffffft!

I’ll leave you with 2 thoughts.

First – brands should always experiment on social media. Find out what works and what doesn’t. To all brands out there – don’t ever read a post like this and become afraid to try new things.

Never stop testing. Never stop trying new things. Never get in that social media rut that is so easy to trip into. Sometimes the things you try will work, sometimes they won’t. And either way, that’s okay! Collect your data, learn from it, and move on!

Don’t lose an opportunity to connect with your audience. If you can share a smile or a laugh, take the risk and take the chance. Social media is about relationship building and networking. You can’t do that successfully if you’re not engaging with your audience and having fun.

And lastly, I will point out that this blog post actually proves my point. Visual content on social media is powerful and validates the virility (eliciting emotion) that one image can have.

It can make people laugh, cry, get angry, etc. So never underestimate the impact a single image can have. As somebody once said, “all press is good press” – and in this situation, I agree with that.

Welcome!

We've all seen the gleam in someone's eye we are smitten with, the light in the distance taking our breath away, or simply the way your friend's smile can fill your entire vision.

That is what the online revolution is about. That is what we are about: creating a conversation, sharing our vision of how interactive the world is, and translating that for small business people. People like you, who have no time to learn the latest fads or trends, who don't have marketing teams to tweet/blog/post for them, or the money for expensive branding exercises.

You need results—like yesterday! Let us help you find out how easy and manageable this process can be. Contact us for a free consultation on what your needs are and how we can help.

Email us today to find out more, or even call us if you want to get started today.